No Female Directors Nominated For The 95th Oscars After Wins In Past Two Years

After female directors bagged the prize for the past two years, no women were nominated for the Best Director Academy Award for the upcoming 95th Oscars event. Furthermore, the nominees for the Academy Awards' Best Director category were revealed on Tuesday. The list included Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans), Todd Field (Tár), Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin), Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All at Once), and Ruben Östlund (Triangle of Sadness). Charlotte Wells (Aftersun) and Sarah Polley (Women Talking), two female directors whose movies received nominations in other categories, were excluded from the field. In addition, The Woman King by Gina Prince-Bythewood, Till by Chinonye Chukwu, and She Said by Maria Schrader were all overlooked. However, Women Talking received a nomination for Best Picture even while not receiving a nomination for Best Director. [caption id="attachment_84358" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Image credit: WHYY/ NBC News/ NZ Herald[/caption] Moreover, Kathryn Bigelow created history when she won the Best Director award in 2010 for The Hurt Locker. In addition, Chloé Zhao won in 2021 for Nomadland and Jane Campion won the prize in 2022 for The Power of the Dog, making her the third woman ever to win Best Director. Also read: Reports: Madonna Biopic Starring Julia Garner Halted For Now

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Only seven women have ever received a directing nomination for an Academy Award, despite recent victories. Campion was previously nominated in 1994 for The Piano, while other notable female nominees in Oscars history include Lina Wertmuller (Seven Beauties), Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation), Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird), and Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman). Additionally, when Zhao's Nomadland and Fennell's Promising Young Woman were both honored at the 93rd Academy Awards in 2021, it became the first time two women were nominated for the prize in the same year. On another note, although the entire organization has a say in the nominations for Best Picture each year, the Academy Honor nominees for each award are picked by those who work in pertinent fields of endeavor. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="635"] Image credit: Emanuel Levy[/caption] According to The Hollywood Reporter, which quoted the Academy's most recent membership figures, the director's branch of the organization is made up of 75.6% male directors, while the total organization is made up of 66.5% male members out of 10,509 members. Furthermore, notable past Oscar snubs for women in the Best Director category include Randa Haines' Children of a Lesser God from 1987, which got five nominations, including one for Best Picture, per THR. Additionally, The Prince of Tides, a 1992 movie directed by Barbra Streisand that garnered seven nominations in total, and Selma, a 2014 movie directed by Ava DuVernay, were also mentioned by the site as notable examples of female directors being overlooked for directing awards.